One of Murdoc's favorite things about his house is that it's a block away from the nearest petrol station. When he primarily lived here he would always walk over there to get some cheap alcohol and snacks. A while ago he was over there filling up a can with gasoline. It's not a lot, but it would be enough to get the old girl over to the station. He's been working on the Winnebago for what must be hours now.
He managed to find a new spark plug, a battery, and some lightbulbs for the headlights in his piles of car parts he has scattered around the garage. When he purchased the vehicle, he knew nothing about car maintenance, so he just bought everything he thought he would ever need for it. He had a lot of money from their first album, so he could afford it at the time.
Now he's thankful that back then he was a dumbass, he might just have all the parts that he needs. He's just praying to Satan that he brought everything back from Kong Studios. Maybe about half of the original car parts from Kong are still on Plastic beach and inside of Cyborg Noodle. If he has everything he needs here than the Winnebago should be good to go as soon as he's done installing everything.
Disappointingly, he doesn't have any tires, minus the spare under the vehicle. The bassist pumped some air into the tires that are already there. Hopefully they'll last until they find a place to get some more. He just finished changing the oil, and now he's going to work on putting new bulbs into the headlights. After he's done with that the vehicle should have just enough new stuff to get it running. By the time the prison notices that he's gone they'll probably be out of the country. Murdoc laughs quietly to himself at the thought.
In the small yard behind the house 2D stands in front of a barrel that's on fire inside. The fire ate through all the stolen car's identification except for the license plate, which instead has blackened enough to not look like a license plate. Hopefully when the police come to investigate they don't look in here.
When a 'ding' comes from his phone, 2D pulls it out and opens it to look at the message. It was from Russel and it said, "Hey man sorry to hear about your mom." Another message comes while he's still reading, also from Russel, "If you need anything let us know."
2D bit his lip and typed back, "Thank you so much, Russ. I'll let you guys know when I'll be back." This might be the worst lie he's ever told. His mother is not dead, she is still very much alive and sent him a letter just last month. It was the only thing he could think of to tell the band about his absence. They're going to be offended when they found out that they lied to them about his mother passing. However, they might be even more offended when they learn that he lied to them about his mother for Murdoc's sake.
He feels very guilty for this; he'll need to ask his mother to forgive him when this is all over. She won't be happy either when he'll tell her about him lying about her for Murdoc. His mother still doesn't like Murdoc at all despite the car accident happening about 20 years ago.
Looking up, 2D noticed that the sun was setting. Has today really gone by that fast? What had he been doing all this time? He just now started burning evidence. Murdoc has been working on the Winnebago all day, at one point he ran past the singer mumbling about gasoline. He watched the bassist walk a block down to the petrol station. Surprisingly Murdoc didn't seem to care about being seen by strangers despite being an escaped inmate. 2D thought he even saw Murdoc sign an autograph while he was there. Maybe he should pay closer attention to the other man, Murdoc seems to not think things through when he's hyper-focused on something.
2D brought his cigarette up to his mouth and inhaled. He let out a sigh as he exhaled. He's satisfied with what happened today. He's seen a side of Murdoc he hasn't seen in a while; where he enjoyed talking to him about anything. Maybe it was just so he'd let the Satanist take off with him in his RV, but it felt genuine. Now he needs to figure out what exactly he's doing here. He knows that he wants to help Murdoc become less of an asshole, but he doesn't know how to do that. He has a law degree, but nothing in psychology. How will he even know that he's succeeded or not? Will Murdoc suddenly donate to charity? Surely not.
Hearing the screen door open behind him, 2D looked over his shoulder to see the man himself standing in the doorway. Murdoc looked very pleased with himself. He probably finished the Winnebago's repairs. He turned his head back to look at the fire.
Murdoc walked down the wooden steps and strolled over to stand next to 2D. He leaned over to investigate the burning barrel. "You look homeless out here, 2D," He said after he realized the other man wasn't going to say anything.
"That's the thanks I get for burnin' this stuff for you?" 2D said with more bite than he intended.
Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, Murdoc replied with, "It was only a joke, mate. No need to be so snappy." What crawled up his ass?
"Sorry, Muds, just in a bad mood I guess," He threw his cigarette into the burning pile and put his hands into his pockets. Bad was a bit of an understatement. He feels incredibly guilt-ridden for lying to some of his best friends, he's frustrated for having no idea what he's doing with Murdoc, he's very anxious now that he's an accomplice in Murdoc's prison escape, and now he's angry at himself for unintentionally taking it out on Murdoc. He's wondering if any of this will be worth it in the end.
Murdoc frowned at hearing the tone in his singer's voice. He perked back up a second later, "Well I've got some good news. He nudged his elbow against 2D's arm in a playful manor, but then he stopped in his tracks when the other man recoiled and stumbled away from him.
"Please don't touch me," The singer said after a very brief second of panic. He sounded pathetic and weak. The shorter man stared at him wide-eyed before relaxing his expression. He really overreacted there, but his body's instinct was telling him that Murdoc was hitting him. He only touched elbows with him, it didn't even hurt.
The bassist was taken aback by what had just happened. Why did he react like he had burnt him? Is 2D really that afraid of him?
It's all my fault.
No let's not think like that right now, he hasn't even hit him since he's been in prison. He has no reason to have those thoughts right now, he's done nothing wrong.
The things I've done before are affecting him right now.
I've hurt him like my shitty horrible dad hurt me, and he still wants to help me.
I don't deserve it.
Murdoc swallowed loudly. "I'm sorry," He said it without thinking again. He hates the feeling that those intrusive thoughts give him. He just felt like he should say it, despite his chest hurting when he did. It hurts to do nothing, but it also hurts to apologize.
The singer's previous negative feelings were forgotten as soon as Murdoc said those two words. He apologized genuinely and completely unprompted. Is he sorry for touching him? It doesn't matter much to 2D, he's just excited that it happened. Smiling now, 2D said, "It's alright, thank you for apologizin'."
Apologizing, as it turns out, hurts less than the horrid, guilty, feeling of doing nothing. There's some embarrassment that comes with each apology, but it doesn't last very long. Murdoc nodded in response to 2D but didn't say more on the incident.
"So, uh, what kind of good news did you have?" The singer asked while the two of them stared into the fire.
Murdoc's good mood came back in an instant, "Oh yes! Good news, I almost forgot! So, the Winnebago is almost ready to go, we just need to replace the tires when we get the chance and fill her up with more petrol. I also found the plug that goes with it, so we can use the electricity without using gas when we're parked somewhere." He stopped for a moment before speaking again with a pleading look to 2D, "Also, I called a guy who knows another guy, and I need 20,000 US dollars from you, Dents"
"What? Why do I need to give you that much money?" 2D asked with his eyebrows raised, "That's not very good news for me."
"The first parts were the good news, obviously. I, no, we need that money, so we can ship my baby to the states. I don't have the papers needed to get her over there legally so we're paying a guy to look the other way while she's on the boat there." Murdoc put his hands on his hips when he was done explaining, waiting for 2D's response.
2D dumbfounded, said, "And he's askin' for $20,000?"
"Yes, you… It's really hard to hide a giant RV from both the United Kingdom's and the United States' governments. We're actually getting quite a deal here… And I guess I'll pay you back when I get some more money from our next album, whenever that will be." The Satanist did the question thing so 2D would agree to go with him in his Winnebago so he's not sure why the other man is hesitating here.
For about 20 seconds the two just looked each other in the eyes. Murdoc was making grabby-motions with his hands as a way of saying 'come on now'. 2D was giving Murdoc a questioning look as he did so.
Then 2D sighed and said, "Alright then."
Murdoc smiled wider and stopped himself from slapping 2D on the back. "Great! Thank you, Dents, just write a check out to 'Jeb Bush'."
"Like the US presidential candidate? He's smugglin' vehicles now?" The singer asked and reached down to grab the water bottle by his side.
"Nah, just a guy that goes by that name as an alias, he thought it'd be funny I heard. I asked the same thing." Murdoc watched the taller man pour the water into the barrel to extinguish the fire. Steam and smoke flew out of the barrel and the two men took a step back. 2D must have breathed some in because now he's coughing into his hand. When the singer finished his coughing fit Murdoc asked, "I bought some more alcohol while I was at the petrol station, want to have a drink?"
2D threw the bottle into the barrel and smirked in Murdoc's direction, "You askin' me on a little date?"
Murdoc grimaced in mock-disgust, started walking back towards the house, and said, "You ruined it, now I got to get sodding drunk by myself."
With the taller man's long strides, he caught up to the Satanist pretty quickly. He laughed and said, "You're not actually upset, are you?"
"No, you…" He looked 2D up and down, looking for something to call him that wouldn't offend him, "You trousers-wearing stick."
It seemed to have worked because 2D snorted and said, "Ouch. That hurt my feelins'."
He must have thought that Murdoc was as dumb as him, because he really piled on the sarcasm there. It kind of pissed Murdoc off for real. However, as much as he wanted to fight the other man, both vocally and physically, he wouldn't. Vocally he won't because he doesn't want to go back to prison. Physically he won't because it just doesn't make him feel satisfied anymore, not even the thought of it, hitting 2D just made kind of uncomfortable now.
As soon as Murdoc was inside he went into his little kitchen. He could hear 2D's footsteps behind him as he went. Reaching into his refrigerator, he pulled out the bottles of liquor he bought today. He paused his movements for a moment and looked behind him to see 2D giving him a questioning look, "Hey can you go turn on my TV? Put the news channel on in case they start talking about me. I want us to know if we have to leave or not." Then Murdoc continued to pour the alcohol into two separate glasses.
2D nodded and moved over to the next room. He fiddled with the buttons until the picture came into view. This television was really old, and it made the people on the news look fuzzy. He's surprised that Murdoc never got a new one.
The bassist turned his head to see 2D kneeling in front of his TV, staring at it just centimeters away. He hummed before asking, "Hey you want anything to sip this with, 2D?"
The taller man stood up straighter and stretched before saying, "Maybe just a soda would be nice."
Murdoc grabbed a bottle of coke from his fridge that he also bought today and put in on the counter with the glasses. He looked at the three drinks for a moment trying to figure out how to carry them all in one trip.
Moving around the scratch-covered coffee table, 2D let himself fall onto the leather couch. He sat up when he saw Murdoc walk over to him holding two glasses in his hands full of clear liquid and a bottle of coke with the cap between his teeth. "Oh, I would have helped you if you asked," He said.
The shorter man put the glasses on the table and straightened himself up before letting the bottle fall from his mouth and into the singer's hands. 2D miraculously caught it with his usually clumsy hands. Murdoc then sat himself onto the cushion next to the singer and grabbed his glass.
"Thank you, Muds, I appreciate it," 2D said and grabbed his own glass as well. He took one sip and began coughing immediately. He could hear Murdoc snickering to himself next to him. "Is this a cup full of just vodka?" He uncapped his coke and took a sip of that as well.
Murdoc hummed a laugh before answering with, "Yeah, I'm hoping to have an enjoyable time tonight." Then he gulped down a generous amount of alcohol. When he took the glass away he winced and let out a cough himself. He hasn't drunk like that in a while.
"And a terrible mornin' tomorrow it seems. Hope you don't mind that I won't drink all of it," 2D said, took another sip of pure vodka, and then chased it with coke. If the police do end up coming for Murdoc tonight, then he wants to not be completely plastered. At least if the police don't come he won't really have to keep Murdoc from embarrassing himself in public like he did last night.
After a little while of the pair watching and commenting on the news while drinking, Murdoc started feeling the familiar light-headedness that comes with being intoxicated. He can tell that 2D was as well because he has become more talkative than he usually is.
"Would it be racist to talk about how smart Noodle is? Because she's really smart, like smarter than the rest of us," 2D asked. His words slurring ever-so slightly.
Murdoc laughed and took another sip, "Why in the bloody hell would that be racist?"
2D laughed himself at the now-realized ridiculousness of the question, "Because she's Japanese and that's like a stereotype that they're really smart."
"Well it's not racist, you idiot. It would be racist if you said something along the lines of 'she's smart because she's Asian'. But just saying Noodle is smart isn't racist," Murdoc explained while twirling his hand around as if that would prove his point further.
2D nodded but then stopped and said, "Hey you're not supposed to call me an idiot no more."
"Sorry, force of habit… and what you said was pretty dumb," Murdoc hummed into his now-empty glass.
2D frowned but said nothing else about it. He then continued from the original question and asked, "Well is it racist that we named her Noodle?"
"…No?" The Satanist said after some thought. The singer looked unconvinced, so he kept going with, "That was what she said when she came out of the box, and she didn't say it wasn't her name."
"She might have, and we just didn't understand it… because she only spoke Japanese," 2D said and leaned his head on his hand.
Clicking his tongue and tilting his head to the side Murdoc said, "Okay then it might have been just a tad racist, but only a little bit."
"We're bad parents."
"We weren't the ones that shipped her in a box through the post."
"I guess then we could have been worse."
Murdoc laid down so his head was against the arm rest and his legs were dangling off the couch. "We could have been way worse. I don't think the fans give us enough bloody credit for how awesome we were at parenting. She became a star after all."
2D laughed to himself and replied with, "I don't know about us bein' awesome parents. Remember that time we let her give herself a haircut?" He laughed a little harder, "She shaved half of her hair off."
The Satanist laughed with him, "In all honesty I thought she could do a bang-up job, I used to give myself haircuts at her age." He had to because his dad certainly wouldn't pay to have his hair cut, and the bastard wouldn't do it himself without accidentally cutting him.
"I would love to know what that looked like." Then 2D grabbed Murdoc's legs unannounced and put them over his lap.
Murdoc almost fell off the couch in confusion until he saw the singer's arms resting on his knees. "Ya comfortable, Dents?" He himself was actually now comfortable with his entire body level with the couch.
The taller man nodded and made a 'Mhmm' sound. He gave no explanation to the other man for why he did that. It just looked like Murdoc would be more comfortable this way. Now his lap is warm, but not uncomfortably hot.
The bassist watched the other man through his bangs, he was playing with the stitching of his jeans. He wouldn't have thought for this to happen when he started drinking. 2D is usually an obnoxious jokey-type of drunk, not whatever this was, some sort of reminiscent, clingy drunk. He would actually rather have this than 2D being afraid to touch him.
"I missed you, Murdoc. You know that, right?" 2D asked.
"You're drunk, 2D, you should probably stop talking before you say something dumb," Murdoc replied and closed his eyes.
"Sorry, just wanted you to know. You might be an arse, but you mean a lot to me and that's why I'm doin' this," 2D looked over to Murdoc to see him with his eyes closed. "Could you not fall asleep for once while I'm tryin' to have a moment with you?"
Murdoc cracked an eye open and closed it again, "I'm awake you ding-dong. Just because I don't say anything doesn't mean I'm not listening."
"Oh… Well I like it better when you talk back." 2D frowned when he didn't hear anything come from Murdoc. His vision was too swirly for him to be angry though.
The singer tried to focus on the television, but everything they talked about had made him zone out. He just noticed that he was absent-mindedly rubbing Murdoc's leg, just feeling the texture of the jeans. He stopped his hands and used one to flick some blue hair out of his face. He was getting tired.
Murdoc was actually on the verge of falling asleep when he felt a weight on top of him, primarily on the side next to the back of the couch. It wasn't too much weight for him to handle, it was actually quite comfortable and warm, like a heavy blanket. Squinting his eyes open he saw a mess of blue on his shoulder and an arm dangling over his torso and off of the couch. In his drunken state he didn't see anything wrong with 2D using him like a mattress. He raised his arm and rested it on his singer's back. He fell asleep while soothingly rubbing 2D's back.